Americans still desire travel, even against economic headwinds. To facilitate this dynamic, they demand that travel providers be able to accommodate their sometimes snap decisions with responsive booking services.
"To make TLPs more vibrant, programs need to pivot from serving travelers to augmenting lifestyles while still keeping up with their need for responsive booking."
Mike Gallinari, Senior Travel & Leisure Analyst
Americans still desire travel, even against economic headwinds. To facilitate this dynamic, they demand that travel providers be able to accommodate their sometimes snap decisions with responsive booking services. Moreover, they turn to TLPs to help mitigate travel costs at a time when they’re modifying their trips to make their vacations happen.
Booking patterns are settling into one-month timeframes being the norm across sectors. As travelers book when they feel financially able to do so, they need booking services that can process their reservations quickly, particularly on mobile websites, which continue to solidify themselves as the preferred booking platform.
This sort of responsiveness is particularly important for TLP booking platforms, as members want to see these improve. Doing so would help strengthen the wavering image of loyalty programs, as 68% of members feel that such programs aren’t as valuable as they were in the past. Booking architecture isn’t the only thing to address though, as accrual and redemption options are in need of refreshing. In particular, members want to see TLPs pivot to being lifestyle programs; 67% want more partnerships with non-travel brands to increase the amount of everyday interaction they have with the program.
For the purposes of this Report, Mintel defines the travel booking market as revenues of travel agents and travel reservation services, including travel agencies, tour operators, convention and visitors’ bureaus and other travel arrangements/reservation services.
Per the US Census Bureau SAS (Service Annual Survey), travel arrangement and reservation services include travel agents, ticket offices/agencies, reservation systems, commissions/fees from airline seats (domestic and international), cruises, lodging, event tickets, packaged tours etc and commissions or fees from computerized reservation systems (subscription fees received for providing access to a computerized database and reservation system used by travel professionals and other subscribers to research, compare and plan travel itineraries; and to make associated travel, lodging and other reservations).
We use Mintel Reports, mostly for financial services and ecommerce markets, plus a few retail and technology ones.
As a leading payments provider, we value additional insights into consumer behaviour, opinions and trends that are shaping the many different markets we operate in. Mintel is a very good and very quick way for us to obtain those insights.
We use Mintel to get a view on where a particular market is going, which can support us in product development and help us identify opportunities or indeed risks, it is a very useful barometer of a market’s potential.
We have such a great working relationship with Mintel on lots of different levels. As an insight partner, they have helped us to develop our business planning in specific categories as well as supporting our creative process but they’ve also been super helpful with facilitating our events in their inspirational offices near St Paul’s.
They’re an innovative company, with a client-focused team that always delivers.
We use Mintel to inform our thinking and reinforce strategy. If you’re presenting new ideas, it’s essential they are underpinned by robust data and evidence, and clearly rooted in fact.
Mintel gives us all that. It’s a great brand and one that is trusted by clients.
There is no question that Mintel is the go-to resource for the best quality market research, but I did not think it was an affordable option for Abacus Marketing to consider. As a small marketing agency, we only work with a few new clients each year.
However, we have a very high-end consultative approach to our work, so we really do need a partner like Mintel to provide the big agency experience we are always aiming to deliver. Our clients come from an incredibly diverse range of industry sectors, so we obviously need access to market research reports from a very wide spectrum of marketplaces – and that is precisely what we got.
When I’m investigating specific sectors I tend to use Mintel reports for their forecasting, which I’ve always found to be very accurate.
They also offer really broad and deep coverage in their reports. They are very, very detailed. For example, we were able to gain insight across a wide range of business areas from just one report, proving that Mintel is excellent value for money.
So overall, it’s the level of detail and the quality of forecasting that really stand out for me.
One of the biggest challenges we face is the need to get smart on a business or category real quick.
We are talking to clients who live and breathe their category every day and the expectation is that we will be able to get caught up very quickly, and bring the thinking that can help them.
We need to do that often in a matter of days, so it’s not a small ask. Mintel gives us a very articulate view of category conditions and does so at the speed we need it.
At Jackman, we believe that powerful strategies are based on human insight. Mintel’s leading-edge reports and insights into consumer attitudes and behaviors are an important input as we develop and execute strategy.
Working in a customer-obsessed organization means that data and insights have to be at our fingertips. Mintel’s reports help us support anecdotes with real quantifiable insights. The summary sections (which I really like) helps save time by giving a birds eye view of the content before spending time combing through the pages.
Our business review discussions are strengthened by the relevancy of the reports to help us better understand our customers. In addition, the customer service received from the team (especially in crunch periods) makes the process of understanding customer behavior even better.
We utilize Mintel Reports, Trends and Comperemedia to mine for insights across the numerous business verticals that Epsilon serves, such as CPG, automotive, telecom, healthcare/pharma, retail and financial services.
By integrating Mintel insight into new business opportunities, we have been able to gain the competitive edge necessary to advance partnerships with global brands and key business players.
For our organization, it’s about depth and breadth. Having one without the other doesn’t enable success in our business.
We’ve found it so useful working more closely with Mintel. They helped support our recent flagship event for our top suppliers by providing a really unique viewpoint on the future of online retailing.
Nick Carroll from their Retail Team was also an excellent panelist, sharing useful and actionable consumer insights. We definitely look forward to working with Mintel again on future projects.
Mintel helps us when we want to know something quickly – it provides fast answers to our questions. If we need to get a view of what’s going on in a particular market it’s very useful.
When carrying out background research, I find Mintel an excellent starting point.
The fact that it covers so many markets is a big plus for me– instead of having to buy specialist products in each area we are interested in, especially when we only require a brief view on a particular market, we can go to Mintel for help as a one-stop shop. I find Mintel a useful and valuable resource.
Mintel is really good for getting a handle on a particular category quickly. If we are working on a new business pitch in an area we don’t have much experience in, it’s a brilliant way to get up to speed with what’s going on, what’s changing and what the key trends are in any category.
It’s very rare now that anyone will plough through a 200-page report – that’s why the summaries are really useful. We know they are backed up by a lot of detail, so if you need to go into something in more depth you know the information will be all there for you.
